Raw footage for the documentary "Veeck: A Man For Any Season." This tape features a conversation with Veeck in his Hyde Park home.

00:00Copy video clip URL Bars and tone.

00:54Copy video clip URL “So we’ve had our entire Spring of seventeen seconds, and now opening day is arriving.” Bill Veeck sits in his home and compares the constitutions of flowers.

01:55Copy video clip URL Veeck is prompted to speak about his mother. He says that she was a very good mother, but that he and his sister had the feeling that they were not first in her life. She seemed to find her children a burden. He wonders if it’s because his brother was shot to death in a game of cops and robbers, that his mother seemed distant. “You just feel not coldness, but not closeness.”

06:59Copy video clip URL He talks about celebrating the holidays. He and his wife Mary Frances Veeck make it a point to celebrate every holiday, as far as their finances allowed. They celebrated Arbor Day by planting trees. They didn’t go on vacations because they always found the places they were living more interesting.

10:40Copy video clip URL Back on the subject of his mother. Veeck says he didn’t give enough thought to what caused the feeling of neglect. “You don’t analyze when you’re a youngster, and you don’t realize until it’s too late.”

13:23Copy video clip URL Veeck is prompted about causes with which he’s aligned himself. “It just didn’t occur to me why there was any reason why a black player shouldn’t play in the major leagues.” He tells the story of his failed plan to purchase the Philadelphia Phillies in 1942 and build African American baseball team in the major leagues.